English: Yazıyor... Talks!: Dr. Zeynep Pınar Cohen | Business Blues

After reading this interview, you will question your behaviors in the workplace, and if you have traumas carried from your childhood to the present day, you will learn about the potential consequences reflected in your work-related actions.

In these days where our awareness is increasing day by day, and our sensitivity levels are constantly escalating, how aware are we of ourselves?

In this challenging era we find ourselves in, working relentlessly to make a living, there are 31,835,000 of us recorded as individuals. Each employee represents a life story.

In addition to our daily challenges, if we also carry traumas from our past, oh...

We need to talk to someone, to be understood, and to be listened to.

I could somewhat anticipate the impact of our childhood traumas on our work styles. To delve deeper, I immediately called Dr. Z. Pınar Cohen. "Dear madam," I said, "hurry, we, from employers to employees, all shades from white to blue, are feeling tight. It doesn't matter if you're the employer or the employee..."

It's noticeable.

She was kind enough not to disappoint me, answered each of my questions meticulously. She explained and clarified each one individually.

"Let's get started!

Hello Irem. My journey into the field of psychology began in 1989 when I started my undergraduate studies in Psychological Counseling at Marmara University. After graduating, I had a brief stint at Balıklı Rum Hospital, followed by a relatively long period of exploration. In 2001, I returned to the field and work, and since that day, I have never looked back.

By the way, I completed my master's degrees in applied psychology, clinical psychology, and forensic sciences within the field of social sciences at Istanbul University Institute of Forensic Medicine (now known as Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa / Institute of Forensic Medicine and Forensic Sciences). I also completed my doctoral education in the field of social sciences, and of course, many other professional training programs.

My doctoral thesis has a fancy title; "Examination of Childhood Traumas, Dissociation, and Attitudes Toward Violence in Three Generations of Women Adults."

Currently, I serve as a faculty member and department chair in the Department of Psychology at Istanbul Health and Technology University. Alongside my academic role, I continue my work with adults, couples, and families in the areas of trauma in my private practice.

"Truly an impressive career! In that case, let's dive a bit deeper into this pool of knowledge. My next question will be, professor:"

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Dear İrem, before we start, I must emphasize that trauma is a highly comprehensive topic, and what will be discussed here will only be a glimpse of some information.

In fact, "Trauma" is derived from the ancient Greek word "wound." It is used to describe a physical or mental injury resulting from a blow.

There is a taxonomy for psychological traumas. For instance, traumas can be man-made, such as those caused by human actions, or they can occur in the form of natural disasters.

Traumas can also be collective, meaning a group or a nation may experience trauma collectively. Additionally, trauma can be experienced on an individual level.

Institutions like family (e.g., a dramatic death of a family member, domestic violence, etc.) or workplace (e.g., an armed attack on an organization, an employee committing suicide at the workplace, etc.) can be shaken by certain traumas.

Interpersonal traumas caused by human actions are the ones we often discuss today, and it wouldn't be wrong to say that they are among the most severe types of trauma.

When it comes to interpersonal traumas, factors such as the age at which the trauma occurred, the duration, frequency, intensity, the perpetrator, and the understanding of the effects of trauma become crucial. These types of traumas can occur in one or several of the physical, psychological, or sexual domains.

Traumatic experiences may have started during childhood and concluded at a certain point. Childhood traumas often serve as significant predictors of recurring victimization. This situation may make the individual vulnerable to traumatizing experiences in adulthood, leading to what is referred to as complex trauma.

Depending on the domain in which the trauma occurred, symptoms that manifest in the short, medium, and long term may vary.

It's exciting for me to talk about the consideration of psychological trauma in the workplace.

If an individual has faced negative experiences within the family, we can anticipate a series of challenges. However, these challenges will vary depending on the nature of the experienced trauma:

🔎 Generally, trauma survivors may exhibit weaknesses, especially in emotion/impulse regulation.

🔎 Their self-perception is likely to be altered.

🔎 Disruptions in interpersonal relationships may be experienced.

🔎 Feelings of guilt, shame, and a sense of responsibility for everything may arise.

🔎 They might oscillate between being highly submissive or rebellious, seeking justice.

🔎 What's even more challenging is that these experiences, occurring one after another, can create an inconsistent pattern of behavior.

🔎 The sense of trust may be compromised to varying degrees - particularly in cases of trauma within the family, where negative experiences are implemented by individuals obligated to protect and care for the person, or when the individual has witnessed such negative experiences.

🔎 It's not possible for these issues to not impact the workplace. Triggers may occur.

🔎 When looked at under the job title, there might be a self-perception that drastically differs from the perception that they deserve this position more than anyone else.

🤍 However, traumatic experiences do not always and inevitably leave destructive effects on individuals.

🔎 The concept of traumatic growth provides evidence that we can emerge from negative experiences with lessons for our lives.

Trauma survivors may exhibit changes in attention and consciousness. Sometimes, these changes may be accompanied by a dissociative reaction.

🔎 Cognitive functionality can decline, leading to difficulties in effective decision-making.

🔎 Coping with stress may not be executed efficiently.

🔎 Psychological and medical health issues may arise. Studies indicate the emergence of certain psychological, psychosomatic, and psychiatric disorders in trauma survivors.

These types of changes can predict workplace performance, potentially having negative effects.

🔎 The performance of leaders and employees with a history of trauma may face challenges in terms of consistency in their work lives.

🔎 Struggles, communication issues, and disruptions in collaboration may occur at times.

⚠️ However, it's crucial to note that my statements should not be misunderstood as an absolute and universal truth. As mentioned earlier, the situations of survivors vary according to many aspects of trauma, but are most influenced by individual differences. Trauma is a highly subjective phenomenon.

"Comparison of 2 Example Leaders"

Let's try to understand through an example. Let's consider a young leader. Let's write two different backgrounds for this leader and try to anticipate how their adult work performance would be with different backgrounds.

Leader 1 ✅

Let's consider a child from a large family with a low to middle income, who possesses high mental capacity.

Assume this child excels in exams and receives education in prestigious schools.

Imagine an environment where there were some challenges during their upbringing.

Picture a childhood and adolescence with certain difficulties, although not marked by hunger or poverty, nor characterized by abundance.

👩🏻👨🏼 PARENTS: Now, let's add a functional parental approach to this childhood and adolescence.

Leader 1 comes from a family environment where their accomplishments are acknowledged and encouraged, both in what they do and achieve.

Witnessing conflicts being resolved appropriately in the family, they experience an environment characterized by everyone doing their best, understanding, tolerance, yet with financial constraints.

Leader 2 ❌

Leader 2 comes from a less populous affluent family.

Their intellectual capacity is moderate to good. Let's assume they attended prestigious schools but gained admission through the utilization of financial resources rather than demonstrating exam success.

They smoothly completed their education without any issues, growing up in an environment where there were no financial struggles but psychological challenges were present.

👩🏻👨🏼 PARENTS: The parents have good education and jobs, but we have information that they divorced when Leader 2 was in the early stages of adolescence.

These parents struggled not only as a couple but also faced challenges in being functional as parents.

Leader 2's achievements never seemed as good as theirs in their parents' eyes. Leader 2 grew up feeling partially and insincerely validated, belittled, hearing that they would be nothing without the family's resources, and believing that they could hardly meet any expectations of their family.

The existence of psychological and occasional physical violence from the father towards the mother and children during the parents' divorce affects Leader 2 significantly.

Resumes can be detailed infinitely, so let's stop here.

⚠️ There are a few features I want to highlight.

👉🏻 Examples are provided independently of gender, the geographical and political characteristics of the upbringing environments, and the sectors in which the leaders operate. This is because I want to focus solely on the dynamics within the family.

👉🏻 Readers can speculate which of our imaginary leaders is more acquainted with the realistic conditions of life, which one can bring more suitable and realistic solutions to the workplace, and around which one employees can gather with human interest and respect to form a team.

🍏 As we can anticipate, Leader 1 will likely be a leader with high self-confidence and self-respect, not intoxicated by the power of their influence. I hope so... because we must acknowledge that there are many variables that mediate our attitudes and behaviors in adulthood with our past negative experiences.

⚠️ We should not forget that there is not a direct connection where the past "a" determines the future "b" as it did in the past.

The presence of violence in people's pasts can almost entirely alter the "game."

We should not only consider violence in its physical form.

Let's not forget that there are various types of violence, such as psychological, sexual, economic, or virtual violence.

Imagine encountering an individual whose self-confidence and self-respect have been damaged, someone who has experienced or is experiencing fear and has learned violent behavior as a solution or expression of anger.

Individuals who have experienced violence may exhibit submissive behavior, being weak in protecting themselves from abuse. However, when the balance of power shifts in their favor, they can also become perpetrators of violence.

They may exaggerate and express issues of power and control in an exaggerated and hurtful manner.

Due to their high pain tolerance threshold, they might assume that others also share a similar threshold. They may label the people they work with as delicate, fragile, or unable to handle pressure.

When viewed from the perspective of support systems, I believe that workplaces should be actively engaged in creating "trauma-sensitive environments," considering the workplace as a growing area.

The idea of creating trauma-sensitive environments stems from a social psychiatric perspective that approaches this issue as a public health concern. To elaborate further:

First and foremost, let's begin with the fundamental building blocks, which are families.

According to the systemic approach, families are systems. They are composed of subsystems, such as spouses, children, and other members of the family.

Systems can be thought of as living organisms. That is, they are permeable and open to transmission processes.

Workplaces or organizations are also living systems.

They are influenced by their own subsystems, the employees, and, in turn, influence them. These systems can be vulnerable, fragile, and resistant to stress, especially chronic and repetitive stress.

The system itself may be exposed to trauma, or many employees or leaders who have experienced trauma can suffer destructive effects.

These effects, when looked at from an organizational perspective, can be observed as follows, much like in an individual:

💥 Hyperarousal

💥 Hypervigilance

💥 Learned helplessness

💥 Avoidance of risk in an excessively cautious manner

💥 Inability to generate appropriate coping and avoidance responses

💥 In a stance that is unsuitable for functioning and adaptation

💥 Increased aggression

💥 Stigmatization

💥 Disruptive effects of gossip and rumors

💥 Decrease in success

💥 Burnout

💥 The negative impact of unresolved and unworked grief on the organization

In summary, organizations with disrupted harmony formed by leaders/workers with disrupted harmony can be discussed.

We are members of a society intertwined with trauma, facilitated by our cultural and geographical position. Therefore, I believe we have a great need to write, speak, and create on these issues without losing hope.

I thank you for giving me the chance to be a drop in the ocean with your questions.

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I express my sincere thanks to Dr. Pınar Cohen, our esteemed instructor, and both of us hope that with this awareness, we can navigate the challenging paths of the business world more easily.

As Osho says:

"The feeling that the flower is beautiful does not belong to the flower; it belongs to me."

That's how it is... Until we meet again in the next issue, take care of yourselves "truly."